Web site usability is a somewhat nebulous concept to most entrepreneurs and small business owners. Web designers might know more about it, but usability is not a required subject for graphic designers, and few real studies on this subject have made it to the mainstream. When I worked at Microsoft as a technical writer, I participated in both user interface design and usability studies, so I have some familiarity with the subject.

There is one book that was brought to my attention recently which I bought and devoured. Steve Krug’s “Don’t Make Me Think” beautifully sums up the web visitor’s experience and provides guidelines for web designers and web site owners alike. Given that most people arrive at a site for the first time as a result of a search engine click, here are some of the questions that each site should answer:

• What is this? What is the purpose of this web site?
• What do they have here? Can I buy stuff, rent stuff, sell stuff?
• What can I do here? Get help, log in, go shopping, read an article?
• Why should I be here and not somewhere else? Did my search land on a page where the search result I saw is obvious?

All of these things must be obvious within the first few seconds of the visitor’s arrival, or they’ll just hit the back button and continue surveying the search results.

The book goes on to describe specific remedies for web visitor frustration, including keeping your navigation simple, keeping colors and fonts consistent, and making it easy for visitors to find what they’re looking for. Keep navigation hyperlinks simple and direct, and make sure the link they click corresponds to a title on the page to which the link takes them.

I highly recommend this book for everyone who works on their own web site!

Webinar Date: April 9, 2008